Johannes Stark
German physicist (1874–1957)
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A supporter of Adolf Hitler from 1924, Stark was one of the main figures, along with fellow Nobel laureate Philipp Lenard, in the antisemitic Deutsche Physik movement, which sought to remove Jewish physicists from German institutions. In 1947, he was found guilty as a "Major Offender" by a denazification court, but this was reduced to "Lesser Offender" in 1949 after appeal.
Education
Johannes Stark was born on 15 April 1874 in Schickenhof (now part of Freihung), Germany.
Stark was educated at the Gymnasium in Bayreuth, and later in Regensburg. In 1894, he entered the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, where he studied physics, mathematics, chemistry, and crystallography. In 1897, he received his Ph.D. in Physics with a thesis, written under Eugen von Lommel, titled Untersuchungen über einige physikalische, vorzüglich optische Eigenschaften des Russes (Investigations into some physical, especially optical, properties of soot). Stark stayed at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München as an assistant to von Lommel until 1900.
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Career and research
In 1900, Stark became a Privatdozent at the University of Göttingen. In 1906, he was appointed Extraordinary Professor at Königliche Technische Hochschule in Hanover, and in 1909 became Professor at RWTH Aachen University. From 1917 to 1922, he worked as a professor at the University of Greifswald and the University of Würzburg.
In 1919, Stark was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields" (the latter is known as the Stark effect).
From 1933 until his retirement in 1939, Stark was President of the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, while also President of the Notgemeinschaft der Deutschen Wissenschaft.
It was Stark who, as the editor of the Jahrbuch der Radioaktivität und Elektronik, asked in 1907, then still rather unknown, Albert Einstein to write a review article on the principle of relativity. Stark seemed impressed by relativity and Einstein's earlier work when he quoted "the principle of relativity formulated by H. A. Lorentz and A. Einstein" and "Planck's relationship M0 = E0/c2" in his 1907 paper in Physikalische Zeitschrift, where he used the equation e0 = m0c2 to calculate an "elementary quantum of energy", i.e. the amount of energy related to the mass of an electron at rest. While working on his article, Einstein began a line of thought that would eventually lead to his general theory of relativity, which in turn became (after its confirmation) the start of Einstein's worldwide fame. This is ironic, given Stark's later work as an anti-Einstein and anti-relativity propagandist in the Deutsche Physik movement.
Stark published more than 300 papers, mainly regarding electricity and other such topics.
Affiliation with Nazism
From 1924 onwards, Stark supported Hitler. During the Nazi regime, Stark attempted to become the Führer of German physics through the Deutsche Physik (Aryan Physics) movement (along with fellow Nobel laureate Philipp Lenard) against the "Jewish physics" of Albert Einstein and Werner Heisenberg (who was not Jewish). After Werner Heisenberg defended Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, Stark wrote an angry article in the official SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps, calling Heisenberg a "White Jew".
On August 21, 1934, Stark wrote to physicist and fellow Nobel laureate Max von Laue, telling him to toe the party line or suffer the consequences. The letter was signed off with "Heil Hitler."
In his 1934 book, Nationalsozialismus und Wissenschaft (National Socialism and Science), Stark maintained that the priority of the scientist was to serve the nation—thus, the important fields of research were those that could help German arms production and industry. He attacked theoretical physics as "Jewish" and stressed that scientific positions in Nazi Germany should only be held by pure-blooded Germans.
Writing in Das Schwarze Korps, Stark argued that even if racial antisemitism were to triumph, it would only be a 'partial victory' if 'Jewish' ideas were not similarly defeated: "We also have to eradicate the Jewish spirit, whose blood can flow just as undisturbed today as before if its carriers hold beautiful Aryan passes".
In 1947, following the defeat of Germany in World War II, Stark was classified as a "Major Offender" and received a sentence of four years' imprisonment (later suspended) by a denazification court. This verdict was modified in 1949 by the Appelate Tribunal in Munich, reducing the sentence to "Lesser Offender" and a fine of 1000 marks.
Personal life and death
Stark married Luise Uepler, with whom he had five children. His hobbies were the cultivation of fruit trees and forestry. He worked in his private laboratory, which he set up using his Nobel Prize money, on his country estate in Upper Bavaria after the Second World War. There, he studied the deflection of light in an electric field.
Stark spent the last years of his life on his estate (called Gut Eppenstatt) near Traunstein in Upper Bavaria, where he died on 21 June 1957 at the age of 83. He is buried at the mountain cemetery in Schönau am Königssee.